The present invention relates to avatars in virtual reality environments, and more specifically, to attributes of the avatars being based on real-world physical attributes of a user of a virtual reality setting.
In a virtual reality setting, a virtual-reality user controls an avatar within the virtual reality setting. The avatar is a human being character or other type of character (e.g., troll, ogre, etc.) that interacts within the virtual reality setting. For example, videogame players control avatars in first-person shooter games, racing games, role-playing games, and the like. As another example, flight simulators or driving simulators may simulate physiological effects on an avatar operating the aircraft or vehicle. For example, pilots eventually lose consciousness when they experience too much maneuvering acceleration (i.e., G forces), and a simulator may simulate this loss of consciousness by dimming or blacking out a visual display of the flight simulator environment if the flight simulator user provides control inputs that would result in such G forces above a predetermined level.
In the above described examples, limitations of the avatars are not tied to the physical activity level and/or skill level of the user of the virtual-reality setting. As a result, in the instances in which the virtual-reality setting is a simulation like a flight simulator, the simulation may be inaccurate with respect to the pilot using the simulation. For example, the avatar of the flight simulator may be set up to lose consciousness at eight G's. However, the pilot using the simulator may only be able to tolerate seven G's before losing consciousness. As a result, the pilot would be able to perform maneuvers in the simulator, such as combat maneuvering, that he would be unable to perform in an actual, real-world scenario.
Another result of limitations of the avatars not being tied to the physical activity level and/or skill level of the user of the virtual-reality setting is that the virtual-reality setting provides no incentive for the virtual-reality user to improve his real-world activity level. In many instances, video games encourage players (i.e., users of virtual reality settings) to be sedentary for long periods of time because attributes and/or capabilities of the avatar used by the player increase with playing time. For example, an avatar in a role-playing game may be able to perform more powerful spells, be able to absorb more damage, or the like as the player progresses through the game. Thus, the player is incentivized to play the game as much as possible, possibly at the expense of real-world physical activity.